Actor Sandhya Mridul’s character in the series Mentalhood stands out for her bold and outspoken attitude, says Sakshi Sharma
Parenting is a daunting task for as there can be several bumps along the way. Right from being anxious about the child touching each of his/her milestone on time to wondering about their future and obsessing over doing each thing perfectly, this job has never been easy. The dilemma, between being a working mom to set a good example or a stay-at-home one who can get down on the floor and play, is endless. There are various other facets of parenting where each has a not-so-easy answer.
Actor Sandhya Mridul’s series, directed by Karishma Kohli, Mentalhood, revolves around different issues of parenting — bullying, health, child molestation and much more. It addresses difficult parenting issues while offering alternative perspectives of motherhood.
The series revolves around Karishma Kapoor (Meira Sharma), who makes her comeback and digital debut with this, as a mother of three with Sanjay Suri (Anmol Sharma) who plays her husband. The character is a former Miss Kanpur who gave up her modeling aspirations to raise her children, two planned and the third, an accident. After her husband’s transfer, she sets up home in Mumbai. The children get admission in a high-end school where Karishma meets several other mothers trying hard to ensure a good upbringing for their kids. With not many avenues open in terms of career, she starts a blog Mentalmom, penning her day-to-day learnings as a mother.
It also stars Sandhya (Anuja Joshi), also known as Ajo, Shruti Seth (Diksha Shah) as the Boho mom, Tillotama Shome (Preity Khosla) as the “Naive” Mom, Shilpa Shukla (Namrata Dalmia) and Dino Morea (Akash).
In the first episode itself one could see that while all the mothers are soft-spoken and patient, Anuja stands apart because of her bold and outspoken attitude. “Yes, Ajo is different from the other mothers and I was aware of it from the very beginning. In fact, this is one of the reasons I wanted to play her. She’s layered and has various shades — black, white and grey. She tries to make her point sometimes but at other times she’s hard to understand. That’s something that I like about her. She is such a crazy, neurotic and erratic character that I thought it would be fun and it was,” says Sandhya.
However, when the script was narrated to her she didn’t jump into it but thought and processed it for a while. As an actor who wants to do versatile and diverse roles, the fact that she hadn’t played such a character before interested her. She says, “I thought it could be an interesting role because it had a range of things — something I always look for in a character. I wanted to play Ajo with all that she’s supposed to be. There is an instance where she yells at Karishma for bringing chole bhature to the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meet as she thinks they are unhealthy. To play somebody who goes over the top is a challenge in its self... so I was just testing if I can pull this off. Also, Ekta (Kapoor) and Karishma didn’t give me much of a choice. They were very clear that they wanted me for Ajo.”
Each episode of the series deals with a different question and scenario, for instance, the first one is on nutrition, the second on bullying, the third on gender and so on. While one might think that each level demands a different preparation, the actor denies it. For Sandhya, it is important to flow with the moment and what’s happening at that point because there’s so much fun in spontaneity. “Honestly, there was no preparation. I’ll be lying if I say I prepared for it. I am not a method actor. I always flow with the script and what the other actors are giving me. Though subconsciously there is mental preparation of the issue that you are dealing with to internalise the sensitivity involved. But that’s all,” says she.
Anuja is a bully mom. She is referred to as the uncrowned queen of the moms’ WhatsApp group and manages every small task of her children’s lives. One wonders if the actor relates with the role. “Well I relate with Anuja to the extent that I know mothers who are like her, but we have nothing in common. Not her life, lifestyle, mannerisms, most of her is not me,” says she.
Though the actor says that there is nothing in common, but her attitude does seem to match. In real life we have seen Sandhya taking strong stands. During the #MeToo movement in 2018, the actor made headlines as she accused actor Alok Nath of sexual harassment. She even supported and took a stand for other actors who were a part of the movement, too. For Sandhya, the movement is still not over. It will continue till women keep coming out for their rights and justice. “They shouldn’t be asked ‘why didn’t they come out earlier’ or pushed to come out or judged because they are coming out,” says the actor before adding, “I took a stand during the movement because it was important to address the issue. We made a huge impact which really shook the system. It’s a huge start. A message was sent out very clearly. A lot of people will now think twice before doing anything like this. I can say this because I personally know a lot of men who backed off, apologised, are wary and trying to change their ways. The men who weren’t even aware that they were doing something wrong are now aware that they need to deal with women differently.”
However, even after all this there are people who say there is nothing of this sort in India. The actor says it is like disrespecting the women who spoke up. Giving a message to the women, she adds, “Speak when you are ready. And I am always there if anybody wants to consult me. They can reach out to me. Don’t be in a hurry because people are making you feel so. You should speak only when you are ready to. We really need to take action. Not only women but even men. Merely tweeting about the incident won’t help.”
A double role in Hu Ba Hu (2002), a sister in Saathiya (2002), a strong cop in Waisa Bhi Hota Hai (WBHH) (2003), the actor has played a variety of characters but her favourite will always be Agni Sinha from WBHH. “That project, cast, experience and cinema will always be my favourite. I am glad that I did that kind of cinema. The film literally made me jobless because I fell in love with it and couldn’t find another such. And I just couldn’t even try to do commercial cinema (or rather what was called commercial cinema at that time). I kept on trying to choose work which was different. I love films with good scripts, good character sketches and clear characterisation,” says she.
Though the series acts as an essential guide for parenting, its entertainment and thrill quotient has been questioned. The internet is full of reviews which term it a preachy show. However, Sandhya remains unaffected as she doesn’t see the reviews, ever. She says, “I do the best I can with my acting playground and then just leave it. If the audience like it, great. The only reviews I probably care about would be from my family, maybe. If people feel it’s preachy, so be it. It deals with a lot of issues and there are many people who feel a show like this was important. Many people love it. So I’d rather be happy with that. However, I also feel that criticism is good. I am happy with them. Somebody told me that Ajo was over the top and I was like ‘yes she was supposed to be.’ But at the same time, it was a point noted. So that’s the way it is.”
The actor’s creative process is to constantly work on herself, connect with everything, good or bad, and staying vulnerable and fragile. “If I can do that as a human being then as an actor I’ll always be authentic. More than preparing as an actor my process is always fixing myself as a human being and expanding as much as I can. My preparation is mostly emotional, physical, mental and spiritual fitness,” adds she.
(The series is streaming live on ALTBalaji and ZEE5.)
